Olympia, Wash.--Marriage equality advanced in
three states last week, with Washington’s governor signing
a bill, New Jersey’s governor vetoing one, and Maryland’s
passing the state House, seen as the more difficult chamber.

“As governor for more than seven years, this is one
of my proudest moments,” Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire
said as she signed the state’s marriage equality bill
on February 13. “And most surely today is a proud
day in the history of the legislature and the state of
Washington.”

“It is a day historians will mark as a milestone for
equal rights. A day when we did what was right, we did
what was just, and we did what was fair,” she continued. “We
stood up for equality and we did it together--Republicans
and Democrats, gay and straight, young and old, and a
variety of religious faiths.”

“I’m proud of who and what we are in this state,” Gregoire
noted.

The law will go into effect on June 7, unless opponents
gather over 120,000 valid signatures to force a referendum.
Anti-gay groups filed paperwork to begin gathering signatures
minutes after the law was enacted, but even before their
applications were approved, equality advocates started
a counter-campaign, called “Decline to Sign Referendum 74.”

Marriage opponents have until June 6 to gather
the signatures. If they are successful, the law will
go on November’s ballot. Pro-gay activists would then
launch an effort to educate voters to vote yes on the
referendum to retain the law, instead of voting no.

In 2009, Washington voters upheld the state’s sweeping
domestic partner law, which gave all the state benefits
and responsibilities of marriage without the name, one
of the few LGBT victories in a statewide initiative race.

Last November, 55 percent of respondents in a statewide
poll said they would vote to uphold marriage equality.

The marriage equality bill, put forward by Gregoire
herself, passed the House of Representatives on a 55-43
vote, a week after the Washington Senate approved it
28-21. Despite her Catholic upbringing, Gregoire’s stance
on full same-sex marriage has evolved over her tenure
as governor, at least in part because of her daughters,
who described it as the civil rights battle of their
generation.

A veto in New Jersey

On the other side of the nation, however, marriage fared
less well, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed his
state’s marriage equality bill on February 17. Christie
had promised a veto, saying that he instead wanted the
issue decided by voters.

That stance earned him the ire of civil rights leaders
across the board, who said a civil right should not be
put to a public vote. They noted that anti-segregation
and other civil rights measures probably would not have
passed had they been left to the whim of the majority
of voters in a number of states.

The Senate voted 24-16 in favor of the bill on February
13, followed three days later by a 42-33 vote approving
it in the Assembly. While those aren’t the votes needed
to overturn Christie’s veto, lawmakers have two years
to gather more support to do so.

“We are disappointed that Governor Christie did not
do what is right for New Jersey families, but we are
not discouraged,” said Lambda Legal deputy legal director
Hayley Gorenberg. “There are many roads to justice, and
Gov. Christie’s veto is an unfortunate detour to marriage
equality for New Jersey’s same-sex couples and their
families.”

“We’ll continue to make our case for equality with our
plaintiffs in court. We also stand by our colleagues
at Garden State Equality, working to gain support for
a veto override in the legislature,” Gorenberg continued.

New Jersey has a civil union law, but the state’s human
rights commission has declared that it is short of the
full equality mandated in a 2006 state supreme court
decision. That ruling, however, left it to the legislature
to decide what construct to use for marriage equality,
and lawmakers chose civil union.

Lambda Legal is currently representing plaintiffs in
a case filed last June that argues that relegating same-sex
couples to civil union instead of full marriage violates
the New Jersey constitution. A trial in the case is expected
in early 2013, following last November’s ruling against
a dismissal.

Maryland House passes measure

In Maryland, a same-sex marriage bill passed the House
of Delegates on a 72-67 vote, and may be voted on by
the senate as early as this week. Gov. Martin O’Malley
has promised to sign the legislation, which died in the
House last year. The senate passed last year’s bill 25
to 21.

In an even more startling change, former Vice President
Dick Cheney was apparently stumping in favor of same-sex
marriage, with one Republican delegate, Wade Kach, being
offered a chance to speak to Cheney before telling the Baltimore
Sun that hearing testimony from same-sex couples
changed his mind.

Cheney in 2004 said that he believed same-sex marriage
was an issue for individual states to decide, and while
much of his party’s national leadership was pushing for
a federal constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage,
he refused to give it his support. Cheney’s daughter,
Mary, worked prominently on his campaigns, and is an
out lesbian with a partner.